This chapter describes a court case in Aintab involving a village girl named Ine whose young life appeared to be troubled by a dangerous domestic situation. It attempts to reconstruct the story of ...
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This chapter describes a court case in Aintab involving a village girl named Ine whose young life appeared to be troubled by a dangerous domestic situation. It attempts to reconstruct the story of this child bride and her child husband, and suggests that this case is one of various interventions by the local court and the local community to save both the young marriage and the reputation of those involved. The chapter argues that disparities of power in this sixteenth-century community were not unchallenged and that it was Ine's ability to claim her share of social equity from the community that constituted her power.Less

İne’s Story: A Child Marriage in Trouble

Leslie Peirce

Published in print: 2003-06-16

This chapter describes a court case in Aintab involving a village girl named Ine whose young life appeared to be troubled by a dangerous domestic situation. It attempts to reconstruct the story of this child bride and her child husband, and suggests that this case is one of various interventions by the local court and the local community to save both the young marriage and the reputation of those involved. The chapter argues that disparities of power in this sixteenth-century community were not unchallenged and that it was Ine's ability to claim her share of social equity from the community that constituted her power.

This chapter focuses on the link between medieval political theories and a flourishing Ottoman intellectual engagement with ideas concerning a perfect order of governance from within a sense of ...
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This chapter focuses on the link between medieval political theories and a flourishing Ottoman intellectual engagement with ideas concerning a perfect order of governance from within a sense of crisis. This crisis was driven by an increasingly mobile population, regional rebellions, and global climactic and monetary shifts that together challenged the “fundamentals” of Ottoman administrative order. It traces examples of a mode of political analysis, distinct from advice-giving, that linked justice to proper governance rather than to religion or to the sultan. The chapter demonstrates that Ottoman literary producers of the seventeenth century, while apprehensive of change, became innovators themselves and revived rational modes of political critique in the process. It further highlights how seventeenth-century scholar-bureaucrats came to focus on the archival past of the state itself and located Ottoman power in methods of record keeping. Ultimately they sought to restore a commitment to textual transparency.Less

On the Perfect State : An Ottoman Vision of Order

Heather L. Ferguson

Published in print: 2018-06-12

This chapter focuses on the link between medieval political theories and a flourishing Ottoman intellectual engagement with ideas concerning a perfect order of governance from within a sense of crisis. This crisis was driven by an increasingly mobile population, regional rebellions, and global climactic and monetary shifts that together challenged the “fundamentals” of Ottoman administrative order. It traces examples of a mode of political analysis, distinct from advice-giving, that linked justice to proper governance rather than to religion or to the sultan. The chapter demonstrates that Ottoman literary producers of the seventeenth century, while apprehensive of change, became innovators themselves and revived rational modes of political critique in the process. It further highlights how seventeenth-century scholar-bureaucrats came to focus on the archival past of the state itself and located Ottoman power in methods of record keeping. Ultimately they sought to restore a commitment to textual transparency.